Good evening,

 

Sadly my wife's '06 Octavia 1.9tdi 105 is not performing as it used to. 

 

Now with the first start of the day it requires a massive amount of cranking 2mins of 10second cranking efforts before it finally fires into life. 

 

After this, the car starts first turn everytime for the rest of that day. 

 

Had a scan on VCDS and found an open circuit on all four plugs (hoping this is just a red herring as this car has shown that before this issue). 

 

I don't get much time to work on this beast so simplest options first would be a great idea as all this cranking will likely put the battery in an early grave with winter creeping up on us. 

 

Also noted that before engine warms up the car produces some exciting amounts of white smoke (guessing unused diesel) randomly throughout the range of revs. 

 

Coil light on dash doing the same as it always has, on for 2 seconds or so then off. 

 

Any fingers pointing in any direction would be appreciated. 

That sounds like the wiring to the glow plugs giving you problems.

Apparently the glow plugs are internal as is the wiring to them and it gets old and brittle so it's a cam cover off job to replace the wiring.

Maybe not, just thinking out loud and recalling a similar post a while back.

Should be an easy enough diy job in any case but do seek a professional opinion.

Also check that the battery is in top nick, as it only takes slight drop in voltage to cause starting problems in the winter. Had a similar issue with starting problems on vw tdi in that always took several turns to fire up in the morning but was fine for the rest of the day and only discovered after going through temp sender and glow plugs it was the battery that was causing the issues. Can recommend Bosch S5 battery if you discover that it is the battery.

Will get these checked out today, if I can find my meter.

 

Thanks for the replies.  Will let you know what is found. 

Had a very similar problem with my Mk1 2003 Octavia TDI 110bhp. As it was under Skoda warranty I took it to them. They said it was either the air mass meter or fuel pump. They replaced the air mass meter under warranty but it made no difference so they replaced the fuel pump again under warranty. Completely cured it. Very expensive for them though. Good luck.

That sounds like the wiring to the glow plugs giving you problems.

Apparently the glow plugs are internal as is the wiring to them and it gets old and brittle so it's a cam cover off job to replace the wiring.

Maybe not, just thinking out loud and recalling a similar post a while back.

Should be an easy enough diy job in any case but do seek a professional opinion.

isn't that the injector wiring ???

@cheshire cat

Well spotted you, I knew something didn't sound quite right, after all glow plug wiring would be heavy duty stuff and not prone to break easily.

Glad you set things straight.

@everybody

Apologies for talking turd.